Triptych on the Resurrection of Christ from 1520. Photo: National Museum in Warsaw.
Resurrection glory in Polish art
‘The National Museum in Warsaw has fascinating examples of works of art with Easter themes. These include a triptych from the early 16th century and two outstanding, original and mysterious works of modern art,’ writes Professor Jerzy MIZIOŁEK.
Jerzy Bereś’s 1977 work Altar of Silence, full of mysterious power, is one of many examples of the sculptor and performer’s fascination with medieval altar settings. In creating his monumental works of raw wood, hemp rope and carded canvas, Bereś brought to life ritual spatial objects that were artistic manifestations of deeply symbolic ceremonies. There is no doubt that the Altar of Silence made up of a canvas octagon (the number eight is a symbol of the Resurrection) and an expressive face with a cross on the forehead and sealed lips, was inspired by the events of Easter. It probably refers to Christ’s descent into the Abyss, a time of silence and waiting for the splendour of the Resurrection.
The scenes of the Descent into the Abyss, the Resurrection of Christ and the Appearance of Christ to the Virgin Mary adorn this small triptych from around 1520, which is fascinating for its ideological content. It is interesting to note that in the central scene, the resurrected Christ is dressed in a star-studded cloak; the Saviour thus appears as the Lord of Heaven, the Cosmocrator. The resurrection takes on a cosmic and eternal dimension. No less fascinating is the representation on the right wing of this Easter triptych. This scene has its literary source in the work of Vincent Ferrerius, a Spanish Dominican from the late 14th century. His Life of Christ was commented on many times during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In one of these commentaries, we find these words: ‘When the sun had not yet risen, but the aurora was barely visible, while the Virgin Mary was praying, her whole apartment shone with a peculiar light. And soon the Lord Jesus appeared to his mother in his glorious and radiant body.’
Extremely interesting and original in form and content is Resurrection or Transfiguration, a 1967 design for August Zamoyski’s own tombstone. The composition is in the form of a reclining, arched figure with arms and legs pinned to the ground. The shape of the body, stretching upwards, signifies a striving towards the heavens, towards perfection. In letters to friends, Zamoyski wrote: ‘Our life is a taut bow, and the aim of its arrow is death’. Why does this great sculptor speak of the Resurrection and the Transfiguration almost in the same breath? The mystery of Easter is at the same time the mystery of the Resurrection and the Transfiguration (i.e. the deification, the passage into the dimension of pure spirituality) – as the final, cosmic and eternal flash at the end of earthly time.
Prof. Jerzy MIZIOŁEK
Art historian, professor of humanities, director of the National Museum in Warsaw from 2018 to 2019.
Source: dlapolonii.pl
